Hamilton Rowan Gamble (1798 – 1864)

On November 29, 1798, Hamilton Rowan Gamble was born in Winchester, Virginia. He was the seventh and youngest child born to Joseph and Anne Hamilton Gamble. In 1812, at the age of thirteen, Gamble began attending Hampden-Sidney College in Virginia. After leaving college, he studied law. By 1819 Gamble was licensed to practice law in Virginia, Tennessee, and Missouri.

Gamble lived briefly in St. Louis before moving to Howard County, Missouri, in 1819 where he worked as a lawyer. The next year he received an appointment as circuit attorney for the St. Louis Circuit Court. Gamble’s older brother, Archibald, a clerk of the court, likely used his influence to help his brother obtain the appointment. Gamble developed a drinking problem during this time that almost ended his career. He resigned from his position in 1823, but was able to overcome his issue with alcohol, and in 1824 Governor Frederick Bates appointed Gamble secretary of state.

Gamble resigned two years later and returned to practicing law in St. Louis. There he met Caroline J. Coalter, a native of South Carolina, who was likely visiting her brother in St. Louis. Hamilton and Caroline married in South Carolina in 1827, and returned to live in St. Louis. They had three children named Hamilton Jr., Mary, and David.

In 1846 Gamble was elected to the Missouri General Assembly. He was then elected to the Missouri Supreme Court (1851). While a member of the court, Gamble wrote the dissenting opinion in the important Dred Scott case. This meant that he disagreed with the decision made by the majority of judges on the court. Gamble thought that Scott and his wife, Harriet, should have been awarded their freedom. He believed the court was undermining the judicial system by ignoring past decisions that freed slaves in similar cases. He resigned from the court in 1854 and retired to Pennsylvania.

In early 1861 Gamble returned to Missouri at the insistence of his brother-in-law, Edward Bates, who was appointed attorney general in President Lincoln’s administration. Bates wanted Gamble to attend the state convention being held to determine whether or not Missouri should secede. At the convention Gamble became the main proponent for Missouri to remain in the Union

Union is the term used to identify the United States and its government during the Civil War.

, and delegates elected him chairman of the Committee on Federal Relations. In June of 1861, Gamble was appointed provisional governor after Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson, a Southern sympathizer, fled the capital with fellow supporters.

As provisional governor, Gamble remained committed to keeping Missouri from seceding from the Union, as well as to maintaining law and order. He sought to restore peace and issued special orders to kill guerrilla

A guerrilla is someone who fights in a war but is not part of an officially recognized military force. Often outnumbered or facing forces with superior weaponry, guerrillas rely on ambushes, raids, and surprise attacks. Their unconventional style of warfare includes attacking and killing civilians, which conventional militaries typically forbid. One of the most well-known guerrilla raids of the Civil War occurred in 1863 when Confederate guerrillas from Missouri raided Lawrence, Kansas, killed over two hundred men and boys, and burned the town. Guerrillas in Missouri were also called bushwhackers because they frequently launched attacks from heavily wooded areas in order to surprise the enemy and often in hid in rugged, forested terrain that made it difficult for the enemy to pursue them.

s in Missouri. Guerrillas were civilian combatants who worked to sabotage Union military efforts. During the Civil War

The Civil War was a military conflict that began on April 12, 1861, when Southern forces fired on Fort Sumter outside of Charleston, South Carolina. Several Southern states had seceded from the United States (also known as the Union) and formed the Confederate States of America (also referred to as the Confederacy) out of fear that the United States' newly elected president, Abraham Lincoln, would not allow the expansion of slavery into new western states. Battles and skirmishes were fought throughout the country by Union and Confederate forces. General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865. As other Confederate forces heard the news of Lee's surrender, they surrendered as well and the war was soon over. Over half a million men were killed or wounded in the war. Thousands of former slaves gained their freedom. After the war, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution were passed prohibiting slavery, providing equal protection for all citizens, and barring federal and state governments from denying citizens the right to vote due to their race, color, or status as a former slave.

, Gamble supported a gradual system of emancipation rather than an immediate end to slavery.

Gamble’s health failed as the toll of the war wore on him. After suffering a fall on ice, he came down with pneumonia

Pneumonia is an illness that affects an individual's lungs. It is caused by bacterial or viral infections that inflame the air sacs in the lungs and make it difficult to breathe. An individual suffering from pneumonia may have a cough, fever, breathing difficulties, and chest pain. Pneumonia can affect people of all ages and can lead to death if it is left untreated.

and died on January 31, 1864. He had fought successfully to keep Missouri in the Union.

Text and research by Elizabeth Engel

Meets Show-Me Standards SS: 2, 6, 7; 4th grade GLE 2a.A.

References and Resources

For more information about Hamilton Rowan Gamble's life and career, see the following resources:

Society Resources

The following is a selected list of books, articles, and manuscripts about Hamilton Rowan Gamble in the research centers of The State Historical Society of Missouri. The Society’s call numbers follow the citations in brackets. All links will open in a new tab.